


Faux Panther Black

by inkstrain (orphan_account)



Category: the GazettE
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Alternate Universe - Supernatural, Angst, Gore, M/M, Romance, Smut, Song Name References Everywhere, VK Cameos Everywhere Too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 20:14:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8027491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/inkstrain
Summary: Aoi's job within their little group of survivors is quite simple: track down fellow mutants and recruit them for the cause, all while doing supply runs. They've lost too many to the government's ghastly experiments, and if people like them are going to keep themselves safe from the state that now controls majority of the world, they need more members and become stronger. But it's not easy. Powers get out of hand, not everyone agrees on everything, there are watchful eyes on every turn, and amongst who they thought were their very own? There are friendly-faced traitors.





	1. Bloody Plums, Ashen Gums

Tokyo has become a city of ash, smoke, and crumbling asphalt. From the outskirts and in an artist's point of view, it all looks morbidly picturesque, fit to be painted on canvas and hung in a gallery for everyone's viewing pleasure. But the world doesn't have those anymore. Who needs art exhibits when there's rarely any food to eat or clean water to drink? Priorities have long shifted since The Divide, and what every individual wants now is to simply survive and live in peace - without being bothered by the government at least. 

_You ready for the run?_

The voice isn't spoken aloud, but he hears it clearly anyway, tears him away from his sightseeing and idle musings. He tilts his head downward and a little to the side, and had there been anyone there to see him, it would appear as though he was listening to the air. But he's actually having a conversation, a rather private one inside his own head as odd as that sounds - but the years that have passed, they've proven just how many strange things are actually out there, across the globe. 

It's the reason why Japan and other countries are in the state they're in, stricken by poverty and war, and disease.

  


**Are you gonna be in my fucking head the entire time?**

_Nope. The farther you get, the weaker the connection so to speak, so speech is going to be impossible. But I'll still be able to feel you, know if you're safe or not._

**You're being extremely cautious today and it's freaking me out.**

_There's no harm in being careful. That, and Ruki, delirious as he was, saw something last night. This is just in case._

**And of course you're telling me this only now, just _before_ the run! What the hell did he see?**

_It's not going to happen anyway. That's what the mind link is for. At the first sign of danger, I'll pull you back. And you won't be able to stop me, of course._

**Thanks a whole lot for giving me a choice in the matter brat!**

_You're welcome. We all know how careless you are, so it was necessary._

**The kids have to eat. We have to eat. We're not going to come back empty-handed, so if I have to take risks, I will.**

_Worry about coming back, period. If you want to protect the children, you have to be alive and around them to be able to do so._

**Yeah whatever. Can we go now Mom?**

_Fuck you and be careful._

  


The crunch of dead leaves underfoot makes him turn around, his only companion grinning where he is, leaning against a thriving tree in the middle of a dying park. "Well that was an entertaining conversation." Uruha says, his blonde hair falling over his twinkling eyes. "I kinda like having you guys in my head, it's a bit similar to a radio show."

He grunts and rolls his eyes, beginning to undress with quick movements, ratty shirt first and then his hole-ridden jeans. He hasn't even bothered with shoes, he's going to have to leave it behind should they need a quick escape anyway. And footwear is too important to lose, so it's better to leave it behind at camp than risk having to discard it. 

Completely nude and unbothered by it, he brings a hand up and gestures at himself lazily. "Whatever. Just do your fucking thing so we can hit the road. We have to be back before dark."

Uruha rolls his eyes too, but he's still smiling as he reaches out to touch a bare shoulder. "You're so impatient. Anyway this isn't going to hurt-" There's a pause as fingers connect with his flesh, and he hisses in pain as what feels like static, only ten times stronger, runs like a current on his body. 

_"Fuck!"_

Doubling over as his arms and legs jerk involuntarily, he holds onto the trunk of the nearest tree to keep himself steady before glaring up at Uruha's smirking face. "I thought it wasn't going to hurt?!" He demands, skin tingling with passed-on energy, and his companion winks as he moves away with a sinuous stretch.

"I wasn't finished Aoi. It's not going to hurt me. Just you."

And Aoi snarls, but the energy from Uruha isn't supposed to be wasted on petty fights with allies. They're for the enemy and for this run, so he won't get tired easily. So that's all he does, muttering obscenities all the while as he forces his limbs to begin shifting even though he wants to really elbow the blonde on the gut, hard.

  


It starts with his long-ish black hair, rippling around his face in the same way it would underwater, but towards his flesh: like it's sticking to his skin before spreading and spreading and _spreading some more-_

And his bones, they groan and creak as ligaments and joints take a different shape under sinewy muscle, making him fall on his knees. His heart is beating so erratically fast in his chest as he transforms, cheeks sprouting whiskers and teeth sharpening in his mouth. 

Uruha glances back as the tree he had been leaning on earlier dies under his touch, having absorbed its energy and causing dried up leaves to fall around him and Aoi in a slow, auburn shower. 

"That took a while, panther-san," The blonde croons in a teasing manner, eyes a dazzling electric blue, the color it gets every time he's just finished devouring something, sometimes _someone's,_ life force. It will fade to its usual color as his energy gets drained, either as he uses it or as he passes it on. 

Aoi, now a midnight-colored panther, only growls in response, tongue darting out to lick at his sharpened teeth in the hopes that it looks threatening. But then he remembers the mind link, and he speaks through it instead. 

_Shut up. Race you to the nearest town, whoever gets there first tops tonight._

Uruha laughs and gets into position, a track star getting ready to run. "I just finished an entire tree Aoi, I can run all damn day and take watch duty tonight without breaking a sweat. I'll top the fuck out of you and then some."

In his feline form, Aoi readies his legs too, just about to spring. **Then show me what you've got leech.** He taunts, and at three, two figures - one man and the other animal - begins a mad sprint amongst the trees at an amazing speed.

Meanwhile at camp, the source of the mind link shakes her head with a sigh, choosing not to say anything as she monitors Uruha and Aoi from afar whilst taking care of a feverish Ruki. 

Toshiko wipes at the young man's sweaty forehead with a damp cloth in hopes of getting his temperature down, listening to his continuous mutters of _no, not him, don't do this to him please_ over and over. 


	2. Minus 32.2 Seconds

He has no idea where he is. With all the running he's done, he isn't even sure he's still in Tokyo anymore. He's at least certain he's not near Okinawa just yet - that would require crossing an ocean, and he hasn't seen a body of water in what feels like miles. And speaking of water... he's parched. Terribly so. And the lack of water is tiring him out all the more, not to mention the blood loss... no matter what he has attempted, the oozing wound on his left arm just won't stop bleeding and he's starting to get really lightheaded...

Stumbling slightly on uneven ground, he stops in his tracks and takes the time to look around, trying to find a place to hide in. He's on the forest edge of a half-burnt town - must have been attacked several months ago - the street beyond the trees empty as far as he can see. Which means it's already past curfew. Maybe he can sneak into a garage or find an empty apartment to hole in for the night as it's dangerous to be out in the open like this, especially with the outfit he's wearing: garbed in the all-white get up all prisoners like him are subject to. He's practically a beacon, so he has to find shelter and fast. Trudging on with labored breaths, he heads for the abandoned part of the area to lessen his chances of being seen. 

  


He gets lucky finally, as he hasn't even left the forest yet when he finds a hiding place. Entering a small shack just a few feet behind one of the neighborhood houses, he manages a smile, immensely relieved. It's a tool shed and... is that a brimming basket of plums half covered by a tarp? Oh well, he's not going to complain - he'll take just enough of those luscious fruits to tide him over until morning. That is, if he makes it through the night. 

Because just as he closes the door behind him and takes several steps forward, an intense wave of dizziness makes his head spin. Several plums break his fall, getting crushed underneath his limbs as Kai loses consciousness. 

He doesn't mind though. Dying is probably the best thing that has happened to him in a long while.

-

  


**Wait. I smell something.**

As one, panther and human both stop their advance at Aoi's words through the mind link, feeling like they're in two places at once. Their backs are to a barely surviving patch of wood, but beyond them is the remains of what looks like a recent fire. 

Uruha, hood thrown over his head to hide most of his face and his bright hair, glances down at the feline beside him and speaks back mentally. They don't want to be heard talking. In fact, they don't want to be heard at all if they can help it. _What is it? This place has been empty for weeks, Nancy and I made sure. Unless there are kids ghost hunting after curfew of course._

Aoi lifts his nose in the air, teeth bared in a snarl as he turns his head, but to the right - into the unharmed part of the town. **It's blood, fresh blood and plums.** He licks at his front teeth, already salivating even with the odd scent. **It smells good, the combination.**

Uruha pulls a disgusted face. _Eww! If you're going to eat something raw no matter if there are plums involved, then forget about sex tonight!_ He exclaims wih a mental shudder. _There's no way I'm kissing that mouth!_

With a huff by his feline form but laughter in the mind link, Aoi approches Uruha and nuzzles the back of his hand, a rough tongue darting out to lick at the other's skin. **Wanna try just touching and fucking then, no kissing at all?** He offers with a slow, somewhat sensual purr. 

There's a loud moan from the human, the sound stopping halfway as he clamps a hand over his mouth. _Ugh, sorry. And that sounds really hot, yes, let's do it._

 **Good.** Aoi takes the final step that brings them to town, making a cloud of ash fly from underfoot and taking him ahead of Uruha. He looks back at the hooded young man with sharp eyes, and if his panther face could grin, it would have been doing that at the moment. **I'm topping tonight.**

Uruha's eyes narrow at that. _What the-_ before he realizes that Aoi has quite literally just arrived in town first by walking a few steps forward. _You fucking cheat!_

Aoi's chuckles are soft and amused in their heads as his tail swishes back and forth in an almost seductive, teasing manner. **Oh but you love me for it.**

There's a smile on Uruha's lips as he follows the feline. _Puhlease._ But they focus on being stealthy the point after that as the scent takes them too damn near one of the houses, no longer communicating even through the link. In the waning light, Aoi and Uruha stick to the shadows, crouching behind everything - bushes and tree trunks and small boulders. 

**There.** Aoi's sharp eyes are intent on a wooden enclosure, hastily put together with rusting nails and slabs of plywood. **It's human, but the smell is a bit off... like it just got out of the hospital.** Uruha nods in understanding and pulls his hood lower until it's nearly hiding half his face. _Might be someone who needs our help. Let's go._

-

  


Kai's crazily throbbing wound is what pulls him out of sleep, and something rough and wet is lapping at it repeatedly, a slight sting to an action that can only be called a caress. Groaning, he shifts slightly but freezes halfway upon realizing where he is and what he has been running from all day.

He sits up so suddenly that he startles the two figures hovering over him, one of them hissing and growling low in its throat and- _ohmyfuckinggod._

  


"Well that zap thing totally worked!" One of them whispers excitedly, the one with the hood and eyes that are a startling shade of blue, quickly getting over his initial shock. "We learn something new everyday - I can actually restart a heart!"

But Kai's eyes are focused only on the other figure in the now crowded space of the shack he'd found refuge in, frightened out of his mind because _holyfuck_ sitting across him with a yellow gaze and sharp teeth is a full-sized black panther. 

And from the blood on its whiskers, it's obvious the animal had been lapping at his wound. _The slightly painful caress of earlier._

"P-please I-" He stutters, cowering back with wide eyes. "I just want to-"

The hooded man raises a hand to his lips, taking a big juicy bite out of a plum and offering him a smile. "Hey, it's fine. We're like you too, so just relax. And," He lifts his knees and places his arms over it, before giving the panther beside him a nudge. "Ignore this black fluffy thing. He's completely harmless."

Kai flinches when the panther growls, snapping at the hooded man who merely laughs in return before addressing him again. "I'm Uruha and he's Aoi. Who are you?"

He finally takes his gaze away from the panther, but only long enough to answer the man named Uruha. "I'm Kai." He says, eyes darting back to the animal. "Is... is he your pet?"

The panther's eyes narrow at him so threateningly after his question that Kai finds himself scooting back once again, back hitting the plum basket so that some of the fruits tumble down to the floor. "I-uh-if you're not a pet-"

Uruha is giggling behind his hand, a seed all that's left of his plum as he shakes his head. "Aoi says you're lucky you're cute, or he wouldn't hesitate to rip your arm off, the one with the wound."

Kai bows his head in apology. "I'm sorry I just assumed that..." He trails off when Uruha waves a dismissive hand, slinging an arm around Aoi's shoulder with a wink. "It's fine really Kai-kun. Sometimes he is my pet you know... does all the things I tell him to when it's just us..."

The innuendo makes Kai blush, and he opens his mouth to ask how that's even possible with Aoi being an animal, but before the question makes its way out of his mouth, suddenly-

"Shit."

Uruha is on his feet but crouched in an instant, posture tense with eyes turned somewhere behind and past Kai. Beside him, the panther has gotten stiff too, the hairs at the back of its neck all standing up and ears perked. 

"What is it?" Kai whispers, heart thudding in his chest as he too, turns around to try and look at whatever Uruha seems so intent on. There's a gap on the plywood sidings of the shack, but he doesn't see anything. 

Uruha pulls his hood forward, his face in shadow. "Aoi says we have company. You think you can walk?" He asks Kai, who is supposed to shake his head no because prior to passing out he had been really fatigued and lightheaded... 

But wait. Now that he's assessing himself and how he is, although still thirsty Kai realizes he's actually not dizzy anymore. Looking down and putting a hand over his chest, he remembers Uruha's first words. 

_We learn something new everyday - I can actually restart a heart!_

He looks up at the hooded man slowly. "I... did I die?" He asks in a small voice, the beat under his fingertips a constant thing that's now gaining speed. Uruha nods distractedly, unfolding a knapsack from his sweater pocket and stuffing it with plums. 

"Yeah, for around thirty seconds. We brought you back, worked fantastically too," Once filled, he ties the knapsack around Aoi's neck before producing another one and doing the same thing. "We'll have to wait to get to camp for your wound, but the energy I gave you should be enough to last you a few more hours."

Kai is shaking his head, slowly at first and then a little more frantically. "You should've left me dead..." He says in a whisper, and Uruha's head snaps up at his words, the panther also turning to him with a tilt to his head. 

However, before any of them can say anything more, a great wooshing sound fills the air and a great explosion makes the shack tremble in a heap of fire, destroying part of its roof off in a shower of flame. 

"Fuck!"

Uruha scrambles to his feet, the attack having thrown him half-lying on the ground. With alarmed eyes shimmering a dark blue, he yanks at Kai's good arm, kicking away singed wood parts as Aoi pushes at the shack door.

"Kai-kun we gotta run!"

  



	3. Illusionist And A Siren's Song

Suzuki Akira's day begins with a cup of coffee, a yakisoba bun, and a syringe. Reading through military memos that consists of his assignment for the day, he gets about an hour to be himself after shooting up before the meds kick in and he's all business. Compassion is such a natural human trait that even the cruelest of men can display, that the State decided long ago to get rid of it for people of position like him through modern-day medicine. It's a bit like getting numb; as soon as his bloodstream finishes absorbing the supressor that has been injected into him, Akira, to put it simply, stops giving a fuck. 

Ready to be told what he needs to do without feeling the least bit guilty about it, like a living robot.

So all apprehension he has as a normal human being about today's agenda as he arrives at the Tokyo Main headquarters is gone by the time he steps out of the place, the drugs turning him cold and ruthless. Killing half a town for holding rations back and hiding mutants from the authorities just so the State can prove a point that they're never to be messed with? Just a part of his job, nothing more but a task that needs to be completed by the end of the day. 

By the time his team is geared up and on a military truck, murdering people doesn't bother him anymore like it would have on a normal, drug-free day.

  


"Sir?" 

From the passenger side of the vehicle he's in and looking over a map, Akira turns behind him as he's addressed, being the highest ranking person there that can be addressed as such. One of his soldiers, sleeve marked with 34 in red on the right arm of his uniform, is holding out a handheld radio to him, and in the dimness the little bulb right beside the antenna is blinking a bright red. "We've got Main."

He takes the device with a curt nod as Thirty Four returns to his seat, him looking back down on the map upon his lap and pressing the button on the side of the radio. When he speaks, it's in an emotionless baritone, tone just a step away from bored. 

"This is Suzuki Akira." 

The faint sound of static greets him before a familiar voice is speaking on the line, a little playful although there's still a sense of authority in the tone. _"Aaah my favorite squad leader! Are you on location yet?"_ And almost immediately, Akira involuntarily straightens on his seat, back ramrod straight as if the person currently speaking is right before him. 

Because on the other end isn't an operator like it usually is when Main gets in contact with a Squad on duty, but Mori Kiyoharu instead, Squad Commander of the entire Kanto Region and Akira's immediate superior. 

"Sir." He glances at his surroundings quickly to figure out where he is and then his watch, voice much sharper than it had originally been. "ETA is about twenty minutes until Meguro."

There's an amused chuckle on the line before Kiyoharu speaks again. _"At ease, Suzuki, it's just me. Amano's headed that way five minutes behind you, I need you to assist him before you torch what's left of our little rebel town."_

Not remembering a mention of another team being present with his own on this morning's memo and not relaxing on his seat despite being told to, Akira can't help but inquire further even as he acknowledges the order he has just been given. "Yes sir. But TORA needing assistance? That has never happened before."

Kiyoharu hums. _"Special case. We have a Level 4 escapee that the Sweepers detected in your assigned area. We need him back, he's very important. Amano was in the vicinity on his way back from Setagaya so I thought, the more the merrier right?"_ Some shuffling sounds later and worsened static, and then the commander adds as soon as the line clears. _"You're better than the TORA squad though, so I want you to get the job done."_

Akira stiffens, sensing the challenge in Kiyoharu's words despite how plain the tone used when it had been spoken, and he turns to his team who had been listening in the entire time, a sharp gleam in his eyes. 

"Roger that sir."

 _"Very good. I want that prisoner alive Suzuki, no limbs missing or anything."_ Another humming sound, this one concluding so that Akira knows the conversation is over. _"Good luck REITA."_

His entire team answers in a loud chorus at being addresssed as a Squad, determined-sounding and prepared to kill like their leader.

"YES SIR!"

-

  


When Ruki wakes up, sitting up so suddenly that he startles the entire camp with his frightened shout, it's with wide eyes and a trembling frame.

_"NO!"_

Toshiko, who had been entertaining the children of their group while waiting for Aoi and Uruha's return, looks up in alarm and is on her feet as soon as. "Ruki? What is it? What's going on?"

The blonde-haired man who had been sleeping almost the entire day trying to recover from a fever turns to her approaching form, looking slightly crazed. "Something changed! Someone's there that shouldn't be! No time to ask them to go back!" He points at his temple with a finger frantically. 

"Look Toshi, _look!"_

Falling on her knees in front of Ruki, Toshiko locks eyes with the younger mam and establishes a mind link between them. As usual, it's chaos in the other's head - but Ruki pushes the scene he wants her to see in the forefront of his mind and she gapes in horror at what unfolds.

_Uruha and an unknown brunette running but in slow motion while a man with bleached blonde hair approaches them, his steps real time. A town on fire and people screaming. The cries of children trapped in an apartment building. The cruel laughter of murderous men. Aoi's neck broken, his yellow panther eyes dulled by death with crushed plums all around him. Uruha's vivid blue eyes slowly melting into black as a knife gets driven into his chest from behind._

Toshiko is on her feet in an instant, turning around with a shout of her own, the children and every other member of their camp hovering close in concern. 

"Linda! Sumire!"

A young woman with purple-eyes steps forward and speaks first, but instead of looking at Toshiko, her strangely-colored gaze finds a twelve-year-old seated with the children on the ground instead. "I need a copy of the town map we were looking at last night, Tat." Sumire says, holding an arm out. "On my inner wrist. _Now."_

The girl called Tat scrambles on the ground to get up as fast as she can, worried eyes not leaving Toshiko's even as she grasps at the offered appendage, making black lines snake in curvy crisscross lines on Sumire's skin from the point where they're touching. Two minutes later, and there's a professionally drawn map there. "What's going on Toshiko-chan?"

But Toshiko is calling a little girl with vivid red hair over with no time to answer questions, Linda standing beside her with an anxious expression. "Nana, I need your help."

A nine-year-old half-runs towards them with panicked eyes, her blue eyes darkened by fright. "How far?" Nana asks in a quivering voice, before turning to the blonde when Toshiko does. 

"Ruki?"

Ruki lifts a hand with a finger up, and he's still shaking. "One hour. You need to time jump one hour." His feverish gaze finds Sumire and Linda's, tapping at his bare wrist where a watch should be. "You have to be on the other side of the town away from the ashes by 5:17PM or they'll get boxed in and die."

-

  


If anything's inside the miserable-looking tool shed the Sweeper has pointed out to him, Akira hasn't seen them yet. But detecting mutants isn't his specialty, so if someone who's an expert is saying there's a mutant in there, well, there should be. 

"Mutants, actually." The Sweeper informs him with furrowed brows, tilting her head as she stares at the shack intently. "He's not alone. There are three of them in there sir."

Akira extends his right arm, rolling his shoulder to loosen the limb as he nods in acknowledgement. "I want a Timestopper on standby." He says, before turning to Amano Shinji, TORA squad's leader, with a lift of his brow. His hand begins glowing the same way embers would as it's being stoked to life, a dull orange that's getting brighter and brighter.

"You're going to stay out of my way Amano, unless you're told otherwise."

The dark-haired man shrugs, stepping away from his senior at the same time he signals a doe-eyed boy to step forward and take his place. "Of course Suzuki. I'm just here to make sure my Timestopper doesn't get killed. He's the best one Tokyo Main has ever had."

Akira lifts his hand with his eyes intent on his target shack, right hand up to under his elbow in flames. "You're not supposed to get attached to your subordinates." That said and as if he's throwing punches but with an open palm and no follow-through, a great burst of flame flies from his hand and towards the wooden shed. 

Beside him, Kohara Kazumasa lifts his own hands and everything before them goes still - the small explosion of fire, the tool shed's roof bursting into pieces of flaming wood - before reverting in slow motion. 

  


Back in camp, Nana blinks her eyes and when she opens them again, Linda and Sumire are gone. 

And then everything changes.


End file.
